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Legal Tourism

Recent press reporting about the number of rich people coming to London in order to pursue libel claims because of the plaintiff friendly laws in the UK has led to London being described as the libel capital of the world. In fact the UK’s laws are so plaintiff friendly that some US jurisdictions are considering ways of restricting the UK court’s dispositions against US citizens and companies, particularly the press, due to the UK libel law’s conflict with the US Constitutional “Right to Free Speech”. They might spend their time better in fixing their broken patent and copyright system, as the US is earning a reciprocal reputation as a haven for copyright trolls. Here’s a clue, “PROTECT IP” doesn’t do it. My thinking, reading and writing about intellectual property law has led me to coming to believe that the UK Libel vs US Patent Laws are both dysfunctional.